Never seen anything quite like it (the things visitors do...)

[NurseKatie08]

Recently at work a son of one of my patients has really taken the cake. He arrived to visit mom while I was finishing my assessment & medicating her for pain, and waited outside the room while I was doing so. I came out to tell him that she was all set & he could go in and visit. Son proceeds to go on about how he had diarrhea all morning (at this point I just ignored those comments, given that I don't care abt his bathroom habits considering he's not my patient.) I went on about making my rounds.

20 minutes later, I was down the hall in another patient's room doing my assessment & meeting the patient (as I had never cared for him before.) Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone inside the doorway, hesitating. I went to turn around and started to say "come in" as I thought it may have been a family member of this pt, and I was just finishing vital signs, so it was nothing too personal.

Once I turned around, I realized it was that son! I told him politely, but firmly- "I'm with another patient right now. You are going to need to wait outside please." He scurried out, looking absolutely shocked that I couldn't attend to his questions at that very second. Imagine the nerve of me assessing my patients!

I talked to the other nurse that was out at the desk when he had gone looking for me...she told me what his concern was about his mother---it was something I had already discussed with him MULTIPLE times, and told him that her MD was aware and the situation being looked in to. (Being purposefully vague, but the subject of his concern is not as high priority on her problem list as other medical issues are.)

Seriously--If he had walked into the room to say "Excuse me nurse my mother can't breathe/is dying.." that would certainly have been one thing...but this guy just has no boundaries! I promptly made social work aware because I have a feeling this won't be the first issue we have with this son.

What jaw-dropping things have you all seen family members do?

[southernbeegirl, BSN, RN]

I have a patient that lives with her granddaughter. pt fell and broke hip and is in for rehab. the granddaughter has been raising immortal heck saying we arent rehabing her like we should.

come to find out, she wants grandma to hurry up and get home because grandma babysits the 1 yr old, the 3 yr old and the 5 yr old every day while she works.

[Vito Andolini]

I was working teh pm shift on a monitored epilepsy unit when a code was called on an adjacent hall at about 2 am. When the code is called, an alarm goes off and continues to go off over the loudspeaker until the code is cancelled. I had to stay at the nurses's station and watch the monitors while everyone else atteneded to the code.

A Pt.'s family member came up to the desk to demand that I turn off the code alarm because they couldn't sleep!

I simply told them that when the pt. started breathing again, we would turn off the alarm and they could get some rest. That pt. ended up coding for about 30 mins and then passed away.

It is not really necessary to keep an alarm going during the entire code, is it? Why do they keep it on for such a very long time? Somebody could seize from the repitition. (Is that spelled right?)

[Vito Andolini]

i work in ltc and have to deal with some real crazy *** family members from time to time.

one woman comes in and spends all freaking day long with her husband, who has cancer and isn't all there mentally anymore. she's up our butts constantly with stupid demands. she expects us to drop everything and lay him down or get him up when she wants, even if it goes against his wishes. a few weeks ago she demanded i stop feeding on the hall and put him to bed because he was "tired". i don't think so. feeding people is more important than forcing a wide awake man into bed. she's also been caught following nurses and cnas into patient rooms to demand things for her husband. i've personally had her follow me into two rooms--both times i was toileting people! ***??? what did you do when she violated privacy like that? have you or anyone else had a heart to heart talk with her, set some boundaries? people get crazy when their worlds are falling apart and some manifest it in trying to control things they can control, trying to protect their loved ones as they think best. but they need to be talked to, given a chance to be open with their feelings, learn their limits.

we have another dude who let his wife od on lithium and is demanding we get her "back in shape" immediately so he can take her home. he wants her home because he needs knee surgery and wants her to take care of him. omg. he's another one that will demand we stop feeding on the hall to "take her to the potty because she has to go right now, not tomorrow, not next week, now!". she can walk again and take herself to the bathroom and does exactly that when he's not around. he also likes to steal food and beer out of the activities room refrigerator (the residents can have beer if they want) and routinely steals food out of the staff refrigerator. he follows us outside on smoke breaks and goes on and on and on about the most inane crap and we have to smile and take it. can't even get a freaking break from him. i hate him.

most of the family members that come in are very nice but the nightmare ones are just that. it's like there's no middle ground with these people.

i love your honesty about your feelings for him, lol. how did he "let" her od? see above in red.

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

Somebody could seize from the repitition. (Is that spelled right?)

Repetition.